Laser acupuncture reduces chronic spinal pain

Aims and objectives: To evaluate the effect of laser auriculotherapy on chronic spinal pain. It is a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Methods: Volunteers with chronic spinal pain underwent three evaluations: an initial evaluation, a final evaluation immediately after the last intervention session, and a 15-day follow-up. Pain intensity, nociceptive threshold in relation to mechanical stimulus, and degree of pain (the greatest and least pain) in the last seven days were the assessed variables. The experimental group (EG, n = 24) underwent 10 sessions of laser auriculotherapy twice a week, while the control group (CG, n = 23) did not receive any intervention.

Results: The experimental group showed great clinical improvement in relation to the variable pain intensity between pre- and post-interventions (65.2%) and pre-intervention and follow-up (58.62%) compared to the control group. There was a significant increase in the nociceptive threshold for the experimental group. In contrast, the control group showed a significant reduction in the nociceptive threshold. The intergroup analysis indicated an improvement in pain intensity for the experimental group (0.006). This result remained at the follow-up (0.012). The nociceptive threshold increased over time for the experimental group (0.016). In contrast, the control group showed a reduction in this variable with a significant difference over time (<0.001).

Conclusion: The results of this clinical trial suggest that the proposed intervention may be effective in reducing pain intensity and increasing the nociceptive threshold. The effect of the intervention remained 15 days after the end of the treatment, when the volunteers were re-evaluated.

Reference: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35405631/

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About Attilio

Doctor of Chinese medicine, acupuncture expert and author of My Fertility Guide and My Pregnancy Guide.

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